After he was insulted by the Fiery Furnaces' Matt Friedberger, Beck has issued a musical retort, recording a song that references composer Harry Partch's 43-tone scale. His passive-aggressive comeback, Harry Partch, can now be heard on his website.

Perhaps we should explain the background to this feud. On 3 November, the notoriously cantankerous Friedberger criticised Radiohead. That's right – not Beck, Radiohead. Having learned that the Oxford group had recorded a tribute to first world war veteran Harry Patch, Friedberger reportedly misheard "Harry Patch" as "Harry Partch", the late American avant-garde musician. "Fuck you!" he responded to the band. "You brand yourself by brazenly and arbitrarily associating yourself with things that you know people consider cool. That is bogus. That's a put-on. That's a branding technique and Radiohead have their brand that they're popular and intelligent ... How's the song? Is it 48 notes to the octave? What does it have to do with Harry Patch? Oh, my wife says I am being very rude. She doesn't like me insulting Radiohead. She's afraid they will send their lackeys through the computer to sabotage us. But they needn't worry – we are a band that sabotages ourselves."

For bloggers who thrive on indie rivalries, this was fine fodder. While Radiohead did not respond, Friedberger's diatribe blazed across the blogosphere. Eventually, the Fiery Furnaces issued a follow-up statement, stoking the fires even further: "Matt has not heard the Radiohead song about Harry Patch, but if he did, he is sure he wouldn't like it. No doubt Radiohead and their fans can ignore his opinion on this matter and continue with their triumphant artistic interventions. Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists."

It should have ended there – with a dig at Beck's religious beliefs. Instead, Beck now seems to have taken the furore one step further, releasing Harry Partch – a song about the celebrated composer who loved microtonality and marimbas. According to Beck's website, the tune "employs Partch's 43 tone scale, which expands conventional tonality into a broader variation of frequencies and resonances".